How sentimental are you?

7+ Year Member

Did you have any difficulty parting ways with your old med school stuff? As I get ready to make the trek cross-country for intern year, I am staring at a pile of Step 1 review books, Step 2 review books, textbooks for every class, syllabi with personal notes inside them, etc. Not to mention tuition statements, grade forms and various letters from the school, many disks with various projects on them, etc.

What did you keep and what did you get rid of? Did you find anything to be of continued use during residency years?

I want to be practical and realistic and make the trip to residency a lot easier . . . but I guess I am just feeling a little sentimental toward all this stuff right now. Reaching the end of a milestone and watching an era pass by, sniff sniff . . . LOL.

7+ Year Member

I sometimes find it hard to get rid of things. Especially things I spent a lot of time with and used. I felt a little like this with all my MCAT materials. Then I realized I can't be a pack rat and needed to get rid of things. I gave away all my materials and right now I have a box of all my MPH materials I am giving away as well. There are plenty of people that can use the study materials and I just have them kicking around gathering dust. I didn't charge anything for them I jsut gave them away. I know someother like to sell their stuff but I feel that I got some of those materials for free like study guides the least I can do is give them away and give the stipulation that when that person is done with them to give them to the next poor needy student.

I am hoping if I can find if anyone of my friends has any extra step 1&2 material gatheirng around gathering dust. Save me a few loan dollars that I don't have. Anyway, the point was yes I get semintal but no I don't keep them around. I need to have a clean looking room.

(Have you ever seen clean sweep on TLC??? I'd feel like those rooms)

NSUCOM 2008
PGY-2 EM

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I feel you Fabio. I hold on to lots of things. I still have MCAT materials, USMLE materials, etc, and I am packing up and moving away for internship as well. I have loaned out these materials to classes below me several times but still can't part with them. I think I'll just be trucking them away to the next location. I'm hopeless

7+ Year Member

I would think you would want to keep Step 2 stuff, since you could use it to study for Step 3. I am keeping general, broad textbooks that could be useful (i.e., Textbook of Physiology) rather than little board review books.

I can sympathize with the above posters, though - it's such a momentous occasion to get your MD or DO or whatever you may be getting, and it's nice to have symbols of all your hard work lying around (although for some, their diploma is enough.) Good luck.

I'm sort of a pack rat myself, but since I've moved a fair few times, I tend to toss a lot of stuff with each packing.

I can't imagine that you'll need your MCAT stuff, Step 1 stuff or any lectures notes except those that are concise and actually tell you HOW to do something (remember internship is more about learning to do, than learning facts).

Anything helpful for Step 3 (although you really just need one of the review books) is great and of course, "classic" textbooks for reference, should be kept.

KEEP THE MEMORIES, THROW AWAY THE CRAP. I can't emphasize this enough. I'm looking at 7 years worth of CRAP in my apartment right now and realize just how much space I'd have if I had gotten rid of it along the way. If you feel a particular piece of paper (grades, tuition paystubs, etc.) will help you remember something fondly save it in a binder or sheet protector or something. But don't stuff it into a random hanging file. If you can't be bothered to go the extra step and preserve it, it's not worth keeping.

99.9% of the pre-clinical materials will be either useless or readily obtainable again if you ever need it again. I saved my hematology syllabus and a few sheets that showed all of the pathways we learned in biochemistry. I think in retrospect I should throw the syllabus out. Keep a strict standard. If you have not touched, thought about, handled or otherwise interacted with something in the past year GET RID OF IT NOW.

Get rid of all textbooks unless you've used them in the last 3 months. You will not have them available while you're in the hospital which makes them useless. Pile every textbook you have in a stack, then try to lift the stack. Now decide if it's worth carrying that down to a moving van and back up. Those textbooks are worth money now. In a few years they'll be dusty paperweights. Are you planning on hauling textbook X with you every day to the hospital? Do you think you'll actually look something up in it on call rather than a focused clinical text likely readily available in the hospital (or update online)?

Sell your Step 1 and 2 books. They are completely and totally useless to you now. Depending on your speciality you'll either need one or two Step 3 review books. Those step 1 and 2 books are worth money now, but worthless when you get around to them later.

Take 15 minutes each day to look at an area in your apartment with a kitchen timer. The question you should ask yourself is: "Am I willing to buy/obtain a box, put this item in said box, tape up the box with tape I paid for, carry this box down the stairs to a moving van I paid for, then carry it back up to my new place, unpack it and carefully put it back on the shelf?" If you can't say yes get rid of it.

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